EMSB looking for students to fill schools in Montreal’s east end – Montreal | 24CA News
In a bid to stem declining enrolment at its east-end faculties, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) has began a marketing campaign touting the advantages of an English public faculty.
It includes having profitable former college students, comparable to Sen. Tony Loffreda, go to the establishments to talk to college students and employees.
On Tuesday Loffreda visited Laurier Macdonald High School within the metropolis’s Saint-Leonard borough.
He’s a former pupil of St. Pius X High School, which closed in 2005 and is one in all various EMSB faculties pressured to close due to low enrolment.
“I hope the registration does increase in the English Montreal School Board,” Loffreda mentioned, praising the French training at his former faculty. “We learned French, practised French and that is serving me to this day.”
The purpose of the marketing campaign, faculty board officers say, is to assist persuade households to decide on these establishments.
“We’re putting a particular focus on our schools in the east end,” defined EMSB chair Joe Ortona. “Families are moving off-island and so we’ve been seeing a trend of declining enrolment.”
In 2020, three different east-end faculties closed: General Vanier Elementary, St. Dorothy Elementary and John Paul I Junior High School.
Read extra:
English Montreal School Board beats trainer scarcity by recruiting employees from France
Laurier Macdonald pupil Vincenzo Paolella, 16, was affected by two of these closures.
“When the change happened I was graduating Grade 6 from General Vanier, and I was just going to Sec 1 at John Paul,” he informed Global News.
John Paul I Junior High School was finally merged with Laurier Macdonald, which is now having its personal enrolment challenges
“Definitely our enrolment has gone down in recent years,” mentioned principal Cristina Celzi. “I think the main issue we have is the area. The surrounding area used to have many kids that had eligibility, and there’s fewer and fewer every year.”
She identified that the 1,000-student-capacity constructing now homes simply over 600 pupils.
Paolella worries about one other faculty closure and feels that authorities coverage wants to vary to assist counter falling enrolment.
“I feel like students coming into Quebec should be given the opportunity to attend our schools,” he mentioned.
In Quebec, underneath Bill 101, Quebec’s Charter of the French, language all kids, together with immigrants, should be educated in French till they end highschool, except they meet sure standards.
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